


Mirror Images (Perfectly Aligned)

by bbluejoseph



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alcohol, Early Days, First Kiss, House Party, Kissing, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Questioning, Van Days, dw the ocs are just random background characters, idk if im emotional rn or what but i almost cried writing this wtf, josh is so wrecked for him it gives me and i love too that love soon might end vibes, theyre both tipsy but def still in control of their actions!!!! promise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:22:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25775065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bbluejoseph/pseuds/bbluejoseph
Summary: They did good tonight, Josh thinks. Well, no, he's almost sure they did good, maybe even better than good.
Relationships: Josh Dun/Tyler Joseph
Comments: 10
Kudos: 34





	Mirror Images (Perfectly Aligned)

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this all in one sitting oops :) it do be like that sometimes  
> title from such great heights by the postal service! it's a rlly sweet song, would recommend listening to it before reading but it's not necessary to understand the fic it just fits the vibe

Falling for Tyler, clearly, was always inevitable. The moment Josh first caught his eye onstage at that shitty little venue in Columbus, he knew he was in trouble, and when Tyler started to sing? Oh, boy. He was quieter back then; his voice was cracked and timid, but Josh adored it immediately.

Since then he's become more confident in himself, and now he sings loud and clear. Sometimes he doesn't sing so much as scream, fingers flying over his piano, and it fills Josh with the adrenaline equivalent of an electric shock. He drums at his best then, euphoric, a sort of release.

Other times, Tyler's voice is gentle. Not quiet, exactly, but something soft, something sacred. It's the prettiest thing Josh has ever heard before or since, and it transfixes him entirely, to the point where Tyler eventually flicks his brown eyes up to Josh's and asks him why he's stopped playing. Josh always feels sheepish, pretends he was distracted by something or other, something that isn't Tyler, and then they start over.

He usually manages to keep his feelings towards Tyler under control during shows, mostly because he's so anxious about the performance that it's hard to think about anything else. He doesn't ask for a mike, and he doesn't speak until it's over and he's stepped off the stage. Doesn't matter whether ten or a hundred people are watching; he clams up until it's all over, then he listens to Tyler excitedly ramble about how many people showed up. It helps.

They did good tonight, Josh thinks. Well, no, he's almost sure they did good, maybe even better than good. There wasn't a single misstep from him or Tyler, no missed keys or notes. The audience was great too, just a couple dozen people at the county fair, so really it wasn't bad. They seemed to be into the music even though they didn't know the lyrics, and afterwards a fair amount of them came to congratulate them on the performance; some of them even bought CDs.

All those people coming up wanting to talk to him would be a lot more daunting if Tyler wasn't there. If someone asks Josh a question and he starts to flounder, Tyler quickly chimes in with a clever answer or a self-deprecating joke, and everyone laughs at what Tyler said instead of his own mistake. Really, it just makes Josh adore him even more.

Tyler is especially happy tonight, which makes everyone else especially happy, too. They even have plans to stay somewhere tonight, other than the shitty mattress in the back of the van; Mark knows somebody or other in town who he used to go to school with, and he offered to let them stay the night at his house.

It looks a lot like the house Tyler used to share with Nick and Chris, except it doesn't. This house is blue instead of gray, and there are different cars parked outside and drinks in the fridge and people on the lawn, in the kitchen, upstairs. Otherwise, it's exactly the same.

There's already a party going on when they get there, which makes Josh a little nervous, but it doesn't seem too loud and there's no cars parked on the lawn or anything. As they're going inside, Tyler gives him a look, that look he gives when he wants to make sure Josh is alright, and it makes his heart trip.

His face is soft, head tilted just a little, eyes searching Josh's face for any sign of distress. His hands are shoved in the pockets of his cargo pants, and his stupid scuffed black shoes with his socks pulled up to his shins, and his _everything._ Josh wants to kiss him right then and there, but of course he doesn't. He never does. Instead, he just gives Tyler a little nod to let him know he's okay, and Tyler smiles at him real big, and Josh swears he could cry. He really could.

He doesn't, though. He goes inside with the others and gets a drink from the fridge. It's not too crowded inside, a couple people in each room, mostly talking. There's music, but nobody's dancing, which is good, because Josh is a horrible dancer. He thinks Tyler's pretty good at it. Or, he's pretty bad at it. It's hard to tell. Either way, he finds it endearing.

As far as parties go, it's pretty low-key. Josh eats some pizza, has one beer, then another; enough to loosen up the last of his tense muscles. He relaxes enough to chat with a couple of people, even gets into a somewhat long conversation with Mark's friend about drumming.

Eventually, he realizes he hasn't seen Tyler in a while, and that little twinge of worry sparks in his stomach. He glances around the house briefly, then goes out into the backyard. Thankfully, after quickly scanning the area, he spots Tyler laying on his back in the grass, a little ways away from the back deck. Mark is sitting next to him, and they're chatting about something.

Josh doesn't want to interrupt, so he stands around on the deck awkwardly, finishing off his beer. After a few more minutes, Mark pats Tyler's arm in a congratulatory sort of way, then gets up and goes back towards the house. Josh passes him on the way to the spot where Tyler is laying, and he claps him on the shoulder as he passes. "Good show tonight."

"Good show," Josh repeats, because it was. Mark goes to the house. Josh goes to Tyler.

There's a single beer bottle in the grass, tipped over, and there's a lazy sort of smile on Tyler's face that lets Josh know he's slightly tipsy; he's always been a bit of a lightweight. Tyler's smile only grows when he sees Josh, pats the grass next to him without a word. Only when Josh sits down does he realize how tired he is, and he lays down in the grass without any further prompting.

"Mark says we sold six CDs," Tyler says. His smile is so infectious that it creeps over Josh's face too, despite his exhaustion.

"Six! That's gotta be a new record, huh?"

"Oh yeah." Tyler crosses his arms behind his head, staring up at the stars like he can picture himself among them. "Breaking News! Up and coming band Twenty One Pilots sells a record-breaking six albums, crushing the previous record held by The Beatles."

Josh giggles, because he's a little tipsy, too. "How many did they sell?"

Tyler's grin is smug. "Four."

More giggling from Josh. "Wow. We really did it, then."

"We did."

A silence stretches between the two like the spine of a cat; cozy and familiar, a pleasing arch of the back before settling back into a doze.

"Do you think we'll make it?"

Josh considers this for a moment, then answers honestly. "I think we can. If we really try."

"That's cliche, Josh."

"How so?"

"It's like a Disney movie." Tyler waves a hand as he talks, but his tone is light. "Like, 'anything is possible if you believe'."

"I'm not sure about that." Josh pauses. "But I think it could be possible if we believe in it. And if people believe in us."

"Do you think they believe in us?"

Josh recalls the people at the show tonight. None of them knew the words, or the tunes, but they looked like they wanted to. "Yeah. I mean, not everybody. As much as I'd like that."

"They believed in us tonight, dont'cha think?"

Tyler is looking at the stars. Josh joins him. They're faint, distant, what with the city lights, but it's gentler that way. Like tiny specks of dust. No, like atoms, drifting through the background noise of the universe. "I think so."

There's a brief pause. Josh glances to Tyler, sees his eyebrows knit together, and he knows he's thinking. He waits, though, patiently, for Tyler to gather his thoughts. Eventually, he does.

"There was this guy, after the show. I think you were loading the van, I don't know if you saw him. He had pink hair," Tyler adds. When Josh shakes his head, Tyler goes on. "He said the same stuff everybody does, 'I like your music, you have talent', stuff like that."

"People tell you you're talented?" Josh pretends to look confused, or maybe shocked.

Tyler smiles and swats at his arm. "They don't need to tell you that. It'd just be stating the obvious."

Josh stares at the sky again and pretends his cheeks aren't burning.

"But he kept going, y'know?" Tyler continues his story, after another short pause. "With the compliments. Not just about the music. I couldn't tell if he really meant it or if he was just..."

"What do you mean?"

"He said I had a pretty voice. And, I don't know. He said I was pretty, too." Tyler blinks up at the stars. "D'ya think he was flirting with me or something?"

Josh's heart trips, in a different way than before. "I don't know. Maybe."

"I wasn't into him. At least, I don't think I was. I always meant to experiment in college I guess, but I meant to be a basketball player, too, and you know how that worked out."

Josh giggles, a little nervously. "Yeah."

Tyler rolls over, elbows in the grass, chin in his hands, like a gossipy preteen girl at a sleepover. "Have you ever kissed a guy?"

His heart trips again, except this time it crashes down onto the sidewalk and busts its head open. An ambulance is called, resuscitation is attempted, but it's no use; it's pronounced dead, all in the span of a single breath. Josh exhales slowly.

"Yeah. I mean, a couple. Just to try it," he adds quickly, although this last bit isn't necessarily true.

Tyler doesn't even bat an eye. "Did you like it?"

"Yeah."

Tyler moves to pull up little bits of grass with his fingers, his mind clearly still circling around something. Josh, meanwhile, is focusing very pointedly on the stars above him, and not on how he just sort of came out to his best friend completely unplanned. Tyler doesn't seem mad. No, Tyler wouldn't be mad about this. Never. Josh trusts him that much.

"Josh?"

He tears himself away from his thoughts; it feels like pulling out stitches. "Hmm?"

"I wanna kiss you," Tyler says, almost thoughtfully, then repeats himself in a more decisive tone. "I'd like to kiss you. To try it, you know?"

Josh's heart, in an act of supernatural power, is revived from its grave, before stumbling from the cemetery and immediately getting hit by a car. He feels like the air's been knocked out of him.

Miraculously, he manages to speak a single, coherent word. "Okay." A shaky breath, then he speaks again. "Okay. Yeah, Tyler. You can-" his voice nearly cracks, "You can kiss me."

He finally looks at Tyler, who looks way calmer than Josh feels. In movies, it always takes forever for the couple to actually get to the kissing, but Tyler doesn't hesitate at all. He crawls over, breaking the already small gap between them, his face and chest not quite hovering over Josh, but not distant either.

There's no staring into each other's eyes. Josh feels a single puff of Tyler's breath tickle his face before he leans in and connects their lips. It's not fast or slow, but it's warm, and it only gets warmer when Josh's cheeks heat up because _wow._ This is revolutionary for him. This is the explosion of life that knocks him off his feet, drags him onto land and pushes air into his lungs.

For a single second, he dares to hope that Tyler feels that way, too.

It doesn't last nearly as long as he would like. Tyler is the one to break away, gentle, moving away again to lay back in the grass. Josh's face is hot. He can't stop looking at Tyler's mouth and he's not sure he wants to.

He tries to say something, but the words die in his throat. What is there to say? What could he do to express what he's feeling in this moment, what he wants to feel every day until the day he dies?

"You are two lucky bastards indeed!"

Josh starts at the drunken sound of Mark's voice. He's just shouted from the screen door; did he see them kiss? Does he know? Did anyone else see? Josh might be dying right now. He's like to kiss Tyler again before he does, but he can't work up the guts.

Tyler sits up, stretches. His smile is back, lazy, and Josh remembers with a horrible feeling that he's tipsy. They both are, or at least they're supposed to be. It's just a mistake, right? Or an experiment? Either way, Tyler didn't mean it, so Josh can't, either.

"Dave's got enough beds for all of us," Mark says; his voice is not quite slurred, but almost. If he did see the kiss, he likely won't remember it tomorrow. "No more sharing that damn mattress."

Josh gets up and follows Tyler towards the house, a sinking feeling in his chest that Mark is right in more ways than one.

The heaviness follows him to a spare room upstairs, to the tiny twin bed that Mark directs him to before promptly passing out in the one across from him. Josh lays down on top of the covers, head sinking into the pillow.

The last thing he thinks before falling into unconsciousness is that it would be better if he just forgot about tonight. Tyler probably already has.

Morning comes to the sound of the shower down the hall. Mark is gone, probably downstairs, where Josh can hear chattering and laughter from the others. He sits up, realizing that he's still in his clothes from yesterday, and rubs his eyes.

After Brad gets out of the shower, he gets in, and along with the dirt and sweat and weariness of traveling in a gross, cramped van for God knows how long, Josh makes a futile attempt to scrub away thoughts of Tyler. It doesn't work. He can't stop hearing him ask if he can kiss him. He was a good kisser. No, a great kisser. Jesus.

As expected, everyone else is downstairs, drinking coffee and being slightly hungover. Dave's roommates are out of town, and he has to go to work, so this is where they part ways. Josh is sure to thank him for letting them stay over. He doesn't look at Tyler, or his fluffy freshly-washed hair, or his bright eyes, or his mouth. Except he does.

They all pile in the van, and it feels like before, at least a little. Mark is driving them to Taco Bell for breakfast, because they're all starving and they didn't have time to eat before they left; they have to get to their next venue by tonight. Josh sits in the back with Brad and stares at his shoes.

Ultimately, they agree to eat in the van, since it's five in the morning and none of them are particularly eager to sit in a poorly lit, understaffed fast food restaurant at this hour. Mark orders for everybody, then sits in the front with Tyler; talking about the show tonight, Josh presumes. He's trying not to listen in.

Brad sits with Josh until he's finished his burrito, then goes inside to get a final round of coffees for everyone before they hit the road again. Mark gets up to take a leak in the shitty Taco Bell bathroom. Josh sits in the back, legs hanging over the bumper of the van, feet on the asphalt of the parking lot, hands in his lap.

It shouldn't surprise him when Tyler gets out of the front seat and comes around to sit next to him, but it does. Josh's chest feels tight, in an awkward way, and he doesn't know if it's ever going to go away, not after you-know-what happened. Tyler doesn't say anything for a minute, so Josh glances at him. His jacket is on, hands in his pockets, scuffed shoes on the ground. He's chewing on his lip.

Josh surprises himself by speaking. "Did you like it?"

Tyler looks up from the asphalt. There's no need to elaborate on exactly what he's talking about. Josh holds his breath.

"Yeah." At that single admittance, Tyler's face splits into a smile, small, but so, _so_ pretty. "I mean. It was good. No, it was _great._ It was like...." He gestures vaguely with his hands, then drops them. "I don't know. I hate not having the words to explain it."

Josh is struggling to collect all of this information, mostly because one of Tyler's hands has come to rest on his knee. They've touched, casually, a thousand times, and this is no different, but he thinks he might be dying again. "I know. It's like..." He trails off. He really needs to shut up.

"Josh," Tyler says, and Josh looks at him. His eyes are bright, but gentle. Oh God, this is a horrible time to cry, but every emotion in Josh's chest is alive, in the most blinding way. He absolutely _refuses_ to cry. "Like what?"

He fiddles with his fingers. "It's like... it's like a sign. Like we were mirror images, for a second. If that makes any sense."

His heart jumps when the hand on his knee brushes his own hand, links their fingers together. They fit perfectly.

"It does," Tyler says. His voice is soft, tentative, like the voice of a kid who's never sang for a crowd this big before, but when he kisses Josh, it's like he's done it a thousand times, like he'd do it a thousand more times if Josh asked. If he wanted him to. And he does. Josh's hands shake, but he grips the front of Tyler's jacket, holding him, trembling like a leaf.

When Tyler's fingers brush behind his ear, holding his jaw, head tilting just slightly, Josh's heart explodes into the stars, into the atoms that glitter just out of his reach before drifting, sweetly, into nothing at all.


End file.
